When Your Time Comes Around Again
by Lang Noi
Summary: Brutal time-twisting and battling it out over the present and future have driven Ethan to the brink. Ethan loses the will to keep fighting. It might have ended there, were it not for someone shoving him headfirst through a Hole to the past.
1. Will You Hide?

The Pen flashed, and the world turned gray all around him as Ethan Kairos drew a circle in midair with it. The scene within the glowing blue circle was equally gray, but it showed an entirely different world, to him.

Ethan looked at the café on his side of the Hole, staring vacantly at the ruined remains of what had, once upon a time, been Chronos. Dust motes swirled in midair, frozen in time, and if Ethan looked hard enough, he could almost imagine an entirely different moment. Glasses clinking in a series of impromptu toasts, chairs sliding across the floor, laughter and warm drinks and friends all around…it hurt. It really did. But that moment was dead, even if he tried to keep it in his head far longer than it had actually spent in this world.

On the opposite side of the Hole, perfectly visible in grayscale, was a frozen version of a moment from fourteen years ago. Ethan's only uncle, Derek, sat at the counter that had once stood in Chronos, his head in his hands. Beside him, there sat a pile of slanderous ads, all against Chronos on its first day. And yet, while it seemed like everything on that side of the Hole in time was perfectly real, Ethan knew better. They were all real then, but had long since disappeared. They were gone, swept up in the flow of time and causality.

Everyone was gone. Or perhaps they had never existed in this world to begin with.

One last change. That was all he could afford now. After a week of frantic time-shifting, he'd managed to wear himself to the bone. Now it was almost impossible for him to shake the ever-present fatigue long enough to even fight Irving's machinations anymore.

_Irving_… For a fellow time-manipulator, or even for someone who had as much power as Ethan did over the past and present, Irving Onegin was a monster. He'd met both versions, three or four times each. One, the original Irving Onegin, who killed Kori in at least four different timelines without any outside interference, and who had spent five cyclic days tormenting Ethan by killing his friends over and over again. The second was an Irving who had grown up under his older self's tutelage through time travel, who had later killed his old homeroom teacher and assumed the new identity of Jack Twombly just to spite everyone else. Who had killed Uncle Derek twice over, had killed all of his friends multiple times, and who had stabbed Kori to death in front of him just before the worlds had reset.

No matter how many times Ethan managed to undo the time changes that had allowed Jack or Irving to kill in the first place, they always seemed to find a way to work around it. If Ethan saved his friends by sending them somewhere else through notes and hints to the past, Jack would immediately shift the timeline and kill another just because he could. If Ethan managed to protect his uncle from being chased down and killed by loan sharks, Jack would send him to be killed in a gas explosion. And if Ethan avoided that somehow, maybe he'd beat Ashley and Emily to death with a tire iron because it amused him.

Just thinking about the time-manipulating sociopath made Ethan sick.

Maybe that was the nature of the Hollow Pen? A simple, innocuous time device that allowed its sole owner to change the past to suit them. Ethan found himself wondering if two users had ever gotten into a pitched battle like this before, where every move was countered by a further disaster. But then, no one could have really "won" without erasing the loser from history…

Maybe that was the ultimate solution. But so far, he didn't have a way to change it. If only he'd ever gotten a vision of Irving's past! Then, maybe, he would have been able to know what to shift in the monster's path so that he never became as dangerous as he did…

Ethan sighed. One thing at a time. Splitting his attention too much had gotten Jacob Eleven and his dog killed in another timeline once, even as Ethan had been trying to concentrate on saving Olivia.

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the crumpled old note that, in one world, he had used to convince his uncle not to give up on Chronos. It had worked for a day or two, until Irving had devised another way to get Derek retroactively killed.

Still, maybe it would work one more time. It was the only hope Ethan had left. Maybe it only took one Hole in time to change the future, like a ripple in a pond. _Just once more_.

He sighed and put a hand against his forehead. Only one thing left to do. _Then I can try to…try to recover, maybe? So tired…_ Though how much of a recovery would be necessary after this most recent run of timeline shifts…that, Ethan couldn't even guess.

Ethan reached out, feeling his arm pass through the ice-cold tunnel that the Hole represented between the future and the past. He put the note on the table next to his uncle's elbow, hoping that was enough. _This time…I'll do it right. I just need another chance. I won't screw up again, okay?_ Ethan wasn't sure if that thought was a silent message to his frozen-in-time uncle, or to reassure himself. It didn't matter anyway.

Retracting his arm, Ethan prayed again, silently, and prepared to close the Hole with the Pen and hope for the best.

That was when Ethan felt a pair of hands slam into his shoulders and he pitched forward, through the Hole.

There was a flash of bluish-green light and everything went dark.

* * *

_What the hell happened? _Ethan wondered, blinking. Quickly taking count of his limbs and sitting up, he immediately started looking around. _I just…and then…did I go through a Hole?_

"Hey, kid. You up?" Ethan froze at the sound of that voice. _It…it couldn't be. I—_ Tempting fate, he looked up.

Ethan found himself staring into the gruff, yet concerned, face of Derek Kairos. Only…about fourteen years younger than Ethan remembered him being. He froze. _This is not happening. This can't be happening. I…I just…_

Derek frowned. "What the hell's your problem, kid? Don't I get a thank you or nothing for looking after your passed-out carcass for fifteen minutes?" He sat on a nearby chair and Ethan looked up, staring at the once-familiar ceiling of Chronos.

Maybe the mood lights weren't in yet, and there wasn't a motherly older woman like Eva Sixon staring at the scene from behind the register, but it was definitely Chronos. Battered, slightly old-fashioned, but perfect.

Ethan stared sightlessly up at it. _…__**Shit**__._

"What's wrong with you?" Derek demanded. "Can't you talk?"

With difficulty, Ethan managed to climb onto a chair opposite Derek's. He avoided looking at the past version of his uncle, staring in stunned disbelief at the woodwork on the table.

He'd…he'd fallen through a Hole, just like Kori had all those years ago. Kori couldn't age—she couldn't live any kind of normal life, stuck permanently at age sixteen while her classmates all graduated and moved on. She'd been completely at Irving's mercy in more than ten worlds, just because he had a Hollow Pen and could have fixed things. He could have made it possible for her to live a normal life—it didn't take a genius to realize that he wouldn't keep his end of the deal. After a time, she had eventually met Ethan and agreed to work with him so they could save as many people as they could from Irving Onegin, starting with Uncle Derek.

And in the end, Kori had died throwing herself between the fake Jack and Ethan. She'd died trying to save the only Hollow Pen user who had ever agreed to try and help her and honestly _meant_ it.

And now what? Ethan was as stuck as she was—trapped outside of time fourteen years too early, unable to use the Hollow Pen even if he could _see_ the damn thing, without any resources…and he'd never be able to help her, or Uncle Derek, or anyone he cared about if Irving attacked again.

Ethan put his head in his hands, biting back his frustration and grief. "_Damn_ it. Why can't I do _anything _right?"

"What are you talking about?" Derek asked, but this time his voice was kinder, almost. Maybe it was just his imagination, but Ethan felt a hand on his shoulder. "Did you lose someone, kid?"

"Y-you could say that." Ethan muttered, taking a deep breath. _I lost my chance to save them. What kind of idiot __**does**__ that? Stupid, stupid, __**stupid**__!_

The sympathy in Derek's voice was almost palpable now—Ethan abruptly remembered that even this version of Derek had lost Kori at least once. She'd run away from him in the past when she discovered she couldn't have a normal life with him, and it had torn Ethan's uncle apart. "Who was it?"

_God, __**everyone**__?_ Ethan snapped mentally. _Mom and Dad, you, Ben, Vin, Morris, Ashley and Emily, Kori…and all of them to Irving and my own stupidity!_ "A friend." That was the most recent, at least. And Kori had died in front of him, trying to keep Jack away. It'd worked, for a day or two. Ethan drew a shuddering breath, remembering all the blood and Kori screaming and Jack ranting about how he _didn't understand..._ "I…she was trying to protect me."

Derek winced. "Why didn't you…?"

"Fight back? I don't know!" Ethan half-snarled. "I didn't know what I was doing any better than she did and…and he killed her because she was _there_." _…Did I just say that out loud? Agh! I'm going to cause a paradox!_

Derek's eyes seemed to blaze. "Who?"

"No one you'd know." Ethan drew a shuddering sigh. "Just…never mind me. It's not worth getting into some stupid fight."

"Someone was murdered." Derek said fiercely. "I'd say that's something worth fighting for."

Ethan cringed as Derek put a hand on his shoulder. "Just…look, just stop, all right?" _Stop trying to get yourself killed. Don't catch his attention any more than you already have. I can't lose you again._ He pressed his tightly clasped hands to his forehead, willing himself to think. _I'm too much of a wreck to even think straight right now._

"Kid," Derek's voice was soft and strangely subdued. "What happened to you?"

_Irving happened._ "I…" His throat closed. He couldn't speak, so instead he just stared down at the table. And by doing so, he found the same mess of flyers he remembered seeing from the other side of the Hole.

Unsurprisingly, his uncle seemed to subside for a moment. Derek slumped in his seat, glaring at the woodwork. Apparently, his own issues had just come back to haunt him.

Ethan said nothing for a while. _I am __**not**__ going to just sit here like some emo teenager who can't deal with reality. _Then he asked, "This is Chronos, isn't it?" to try and pull himself out of his bout of depression. He was fairly sure he succeeded, for a bit.

"Yeah." Derek muttered. He glanced at the pile of flyers on the table. "Not for a whole lot longer, though."

"I'm not so sure about that." Ethan remarked absently. "Can I see one of those?"

Derek blinked. "Sure. Don't see what for, though." He grabbed one of the papers at random and slid it across the table to Ethan.

It's the same as before. Ethan thought, staring at the malicious ad. "Chronos is a hotbed of corruption! Keep it out of our town!" It's even all done by the same computer—the ink's smudged in the same place. "I wouldn't listen to these, if I were you. It's only your first day, right?"

Derek stopped, staring at him. "Wait, what?"

Ethan bit the inside of his cheek, wondering how the hell he was supposed to explain this. He knew what would save Chronos, from his odd variation of foreknowledge, but that version of Derek had thought the helpful note was from Ethan's father, Timothy. Would it still work if the hints came from some random teenager?

_…I have to try anyway. Even if I can't use the Hollow Pen, even if I could find it again, I can't just let Irving win again_. "There has to be a way to make your café so popular no one will care about these things." He picked up the notice and tore it in half. "I already don't."

"You're also just one kid." Derek told him, but he didn't sound like he was actually disagreeing.

"Well, it just takes one." Ethan said with false cheer. _I learned the hard way that it also takes just one person to ruin everything. I won't let you win, Irving Onegin. Maybe I can't stop you here, but I can damn well try_. "All you need are a few ideas."

Derek leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "If that's what you think, lay it on me. What are your killer ideas?" The half-smirk was back. If it wasn't for the fact that this Derek Kairos was way too young, Ethan could almost believe that the world had gone back to normal. "Mind, that doesn't mean I'm going to do everything you say, kid."

_I wouldn't expect you to, Uncle Derek_, Ethan said silently. _Now, to play up the perverted teenager angle_. "Well…I've heard that female waiting staff might be a big part of it. With the economy the way it is—" Ethan mentally checked what he remembered of late-20th century history to be sure and remembered that yes, the economy was currently completely shot, "—there're more than a few girls who need jobs. But make sure they're really, really pretty."

Derek snorted. "You're some piece of work, kid. Okay, I'll bite. What next?"

_That's Ben and Aaron's suggestions worked out, so… _Ethan looked up at the ceiling, as though thinking hard. "Everyone likes free refills." _Okay, that's Vin… _"And you need to change the atmosphere."

"To what?" Derek asked, frowning a little. He'd probably set up Chronos the way he thought Kori would like it, or something like that. Maybe changing things would be harder for him than Ethan remembered.

Ethan made a sweeping gesture. "Like, more casual. Less like a restaurant, more like someone's living room or something."

"More casual…" Derek looked at the walls, considering. "Okay, I can see that. I guess it's not much of a café if everyone feels like they have to run off or get yelled at by the waitress or something."

Ethan shrugged_. Ben, Vin, Morris, Aaron…who else? Did I even ask anyone else? Ashley and Mr. Twombly didn't have any ideas, and neither did Olivia or Sara…_ "That's pretty much the basics. I figure you can put your own spin on it."

Derek's frown deepened. "But we've got a problem, kid. I'm already in debt from just opening this place, and there's no way my brother will lend anything more than he has. Tightwad."

Ethan mentally winced. That was his dad Derek was badmouthing… "So, you can't afford to renovate or hire new workers?"

Derek shook his head. "Probably not. Especially after all this bad press." He jerked his thumb at the pile of slanderous flyers on the counter.

Ethan shot the pile a sidelong look. "Well, I figure you need to catch up with your recycling anyway."

"That doesn't help with finances much." Derek said. He sighed.

_He's on his own,_ Ethan thought suddenly. _And so am I. Why can't I work with that?_ "I…I might have an idea, if you just need help for a while."

Derek raised his head and his eyebrows. "Oh really?" The red-brown eyes focused on Ethan.

Ethan almost flinched under his past-uncle's gaze.

"Hey, you can spit it out. You were doing pretty good before this, kid." Derek reminded him. He pointedly didn't mention how Ethan had shut down earlier in the conversation.

"Yeah, it's just…" Ethan sighed. "Look, I'm pretty much broke, too_." Or rather, I'm carrying the wrong kind of money—it won't be designed for another five years_. "But if you need an extra hand around here, I'm willing to work just for a place to stay."

Derek blinked. "Haven't you got parents?"

This time, Ethan let himself think back. _Mom…Dad…I just remember fire. What the hell happened to them when Irving shifted the past? _"They're gone. Gas explosion."

"Sorry." Derek mumbled. "I didn't…"

"You didn't have anything to do with it, so don't apologize." Ethan told him. "And…and if you'll let me crash at your apartment, I'll work as long as I have to so you can get Chronos up and running. You don't need to pay me at all until we start getting customers." _It might take a while. But I don't legally exist here as a teenager—I bet past-me isn't even in preschool yet. Fourteen years…I think I'd be about two-and-a-half then. Now. Something like that. Time travel is so confusing._ "I…I really don't have anywhere to go now." _My friends are all toddlers or infants in relative time. My parents' son is nearly three. Kori's dead. Irving's still running around. This is hell_.

"What kind of teenager thinks like that?" Derek asked, confused but not hostile. "Not any friends, or family?"

"…She…" _God, it hurts. Kori was the last one. I couldn't save them, and not even her in the end. Why couldn't I have at least saved someone?_ "My uncle's gone. Hell if I know where. Same with everyone else, but…no, I remember going to their funerals." _The one time I couldn't change the past for long enough that I had to, anyway. And then I realized I couldn't fix some things. It all started changing so fast…_

Derek put his hand on Ethan's shoulder. He was smiling sadly. "Look, I at least have to know your name, okay? Easy on the nerves and all—it's not exactly a tough question."

_No way in hell am I telling him my real name._ Ethan decided instantly on that, but what to tell him? Almost immediately, he found an answer. Time, and the will to change things. Why the hell not? "The name's Will. William Secc."

"Okay then, Will." Derek said, sticking out his hand. "I'll put up with you for a few weeks if this pans out. You get the couch if you shake, though."

Ethan didn't even have to think about it. "It's a deal."

* * *

Not much later, Derek Kairos sat by his writing desk, occasionally glancing over at Will while the teenager slept on his moth-eaten couch. He didn't seem to mind, amazingly enough. Even though Derek would concede that someone who looked only a few years younger than him was probably just spry enough to tolerate the sagging cushions, it didn't explain how Will had slept through the car backfiring an hour ago, Sox the cat kneading his claws on Will's jacket, and the bit where Derek had dropped and broken a coffee mug and swore like a sailor about it. He'd liked that mug.

Sox, who had settled his black-and-white mass between Will and the couch, meowed at him.

Derek blinked. Actually, he could never remember a time where Sox got so comfortable with a stranger so quickly. Maybe there was more to Will than just the desperate teenager side he kept showing.  
Will rolled over at that moment, throwing one arm out wide and spooking the cat latched to his side. And yet, Sox merely repositioned himself so he was sitting on Will's chest instead. Derek had never seen that happen, either. He'd seen a whole lot of people, even his little nephew Ethan, get scratched by the cat for much less. Hell, Sox had almost torn his hand off just that week for giving him a bath!

Derek sighed. He'd admit that Will was a bit of a mystery. The brunet was just too strange, flitting back and forth between brash confidence and the utter wreck Derek had seen twice over the course of just one conversation. He wondered what, if anything, had taught the boy to compartmentalize his emotions so obviously. That was a question for another time, though. Tomorrow, remodelling would begin.

Still…thinking about it, Will really did have an uncanny resemblance to Ethan, though they were obviously years apart and Derek knew his brother better than to think he'd cheat on Pamela. Besides, Ethan looked a bit like both of his parents. Will just looked a bit like Ethan. They even had the same blue eyes, but that would be a bit of a stretch. Maybe that was just how doppelgangers worked.  
Will yawned in his sleep and Derek heard him mutter something indecipherable. Then, after a longer pause, Will shifted and this time, Derek heard him say, very softly, "Sorry..."

"About what?" Derek asked without thinking. He almost slapped himself in the face. He's not going to hear you, stupid!

Will stayed silent.

Deciding that enough was enough, Derek stretched and yawned. Time for bed.

* * *

Outside of the apartment shared by the two Kairos men, there was a swish of darkness and bright pink, ghosting in the breeze like a mirage.

The apparition watched the distant, bright window with sad eyes. Then, after the final light went out, the wind swept over the bare street. It was like no one had even been there to begin with.

* * *

**A/N: **Honestly, I just wanted to post this to see if I got a response. There is quite a long fic ahead of this one scene, but it will involve time paradoxes and stable time loops and I really just want to know if anyone else is interested in reading this kind of thing.


	2. Will You Run?

**A/N:** And now it's time for another breakdown in communications, more shocking revelations, and family drama! Seriously, if you wanted to deal with a well-adjusted Ethan, this is not the place to go.

But where's the fun in that? :D

* * *

Chapter Two: Will You Run?

* * *

_Kori screamed. "Ethan, look out!"_

_Ethan spun around, just in time for Irving—no, Jack—to slash his leg with a knife. Bright red blood gushed from his left thigh around the knife, which had been left in it. For a moment, Ethan could only think of how he had once managed to avoid a similar attack by the same man, and that now, apparently, his luck had run out. _

_Then the pain hit. Ethan wasn't sure if he screamed. If he had, it was probably drowned out by Kori's when he collapsed. Ethan tried to force his fingers around the handle, trying to force down the impulse to panic or freeze in shock so he could be of __**some**__ use to Kori. Irving didn't have the knife, so he'd have to go more slowly…maybe he could be stopped._

_Ethan's wounded leg buckled under him. He fell, dazed, but he could still see Kori when she stood defensively between Ethan and Jack. He knew she was still there. She crouched next to him, her arms around his shoulders like a shield, his head against her shoulder. Ethan looked down and noted, in a detached sort of way, that both he and Kori were kneeling in an expanding halo of blood. Ethan forced his hand to clamp down on the stab wound, but it didn't seem to help much._

"_I won't let you win, Jack!" Kori said fiercely, glaring at him. "I hate you! I absolutely despise you!"_

"_K-Kori…" Ethan gasped. _Don't do it! Stop trying to make him attack you!

"_You were only ever just a tool!" Jack snarled, drawing a second pocketknife. "So go be a good girl and let me finish this!"_

"_No!"_

Nononono-! Kori, just stop it! He'll kill you! _"Kori, run…!" But it didn't seem like anyone could hear him._

_Jack snarled wordlessly and charged. Kori lashed out at the same moment, kicking wildly and knocking Jack off his feet by slamming her foot into the side of his knee. Jack crashed to the ground. Kori tried to help Ethan get to his feet, but his injured leg failed to respond at all and they fell as Ethan's leg folded under him. Then the murderer, grasping his fallen knife again, drove the weapon into Kori's back._

_Ethan felt blood splash across his face and Kori slumped against him, barely balancing against Ethan's shoulder. "KORI!" he screamed._

_Kori's delayed reply came as a barely audible whisper. Her hands clamped down on his shoulders. "S-save your uncle, Ethan. Please..."Then she went limp and fell._

_Kori had stopped moving. Jack was shouting mindlessly, sounding like he was in despair… "B-but why? You were supposed to work for me!"_

This can't be happening… We were supposed to find a way to keep everyone safe! Kori, please…get up! Please…

_Then Jack looked at him. Eyes wide and insanity lining the edges, mouth locked into a terrible grimace. Knife raised._

_The Hollow Pen might have bent the rules of the time stream so that its users could survive most tampering, but it didn't have to power to change the will of a single determined madman if the circumstances were wrong. It hadn't been able to save his parents, even though his father had still been a Hollow Pen user when the gas main exploded all those years ago. And Ethan was out of time._

_The knife came down, but halted halfway when Ethan rolled and caught Jack's descending arm. He wouldn't let himself fail her again. Not after everything._

"_Just die like your worthless parents!" Jack snarled, spittle flying into Ethan's face. _

_Normally, this might have been when a hero in some movie would come up with some pithy one-liner and make his comeback. Ethan panted, in too much pain and filled with too much desperation to care. He didn't want to die._

"_Hey, what's going on here? Get away from that kid!" _

Aaron_? Ethan's concentration slipped, only for a moment. Long enough to recognize the voice, to recognize __**help**__._

_It was all the opening Jack needed. The next thing Ethan knew, he had a knife in his ribs and Jack was standing over him, hands covered in blood. Aaron chasing Jack off, in stops and starts that might have left him wondering how, like an old slideshow. The blond was on his cell phone, other hand pressing down on—around—the knife. Then nothing._

_Ethan blinked and everything changed. _Kori…?_ But he couldn't see anyone he recognized—just men with harsh voices and uniforms he couldn't place. "Nn…"_

"_What the hell happened to this kid?" Someone was shouting. He sounded brusque._

"_Not to mention the girl…" Two people…_

_When Ethan woke up, he was lying in a hospital bed. He'd asked around a little before he'd been sent home in a daze. Kori had been dead on arrival. Her body had disappeared. All they had found was a tiny silver hourglass, which they let him keep._

_He was in the hospital for about a day, thanks to the Hollow Pen and Sox's efforts to keep him alive—even if they did it by tearing away at his lifespan to have him survive the present. Jack had already killed Aaron and Olivia before he got out._

Ethan woke up from his nightmare, blinked at the ceiling, and decided that there wasn't really any point to trying to get extra sleep on the couch. His nightmares were more often memories, now, and…and he didn't think about it anymore. Wallowing in his guilt over what had happened in his past wasn't going to save his friends' future.

So he went to make breakfast for both him and his uncle—the routine was yet another thing that was saving his sanity.

Or at least he hoped it did. There was nothing quite like being an _insane_ time traveler.

* * *

"Hi! 'M Ethan. What's your name?"

Somehow, Ethan had to admit that this was probably the weirdest experience of his life. And that could be solely blamed on the fact that his younger self was sitting on his knee like nothing at all was happening, other than meeting a new friend. For his part, Ethan was sitting on the bed of Derek's pickup truck and wondering how the hell he'd gotten into this particular mess."Um…Will."

"Will? Will!" the younger version of himself chirped. "Sounds like a word. 'M learning words!"

"You're three." Ethan said, still in shock.

Little Ethan pouted. "Nuh-uh! 'M three and a _half_! Ben's only three!"

Ethan swallowed hard. "Ah… okay. That's good."

"'M gonna go to school next year, and Vin's got a little sister he's gonna grow up to look after like a good big brother and…" Ethan was fairly sure he'd never said that much at once without stopping to breathe, particularly when he was less than four years old. "And 'm gonna go see Big Ben when Mommy and Daddy can take me and…" Though, it was nice to know that he was consistently obsessed with clocks throughout his life. That much had mostly stayed the same.

Even though it was probably rude, Ethan tuned his younger self out entirely, preferring to stare at the chatting adults and wonder what the hell had gone wrong this time.

* * *

Since meeting up with Derek, Ethan had spent six months in the older man's company. It was a learning experience.

For one thing, Ethan had never gotten a chance to learn how to drive. At least one version of his uncle had promised, but the world had reset before he could fulfill that bargain. So he'd been spending the last few months learning how, even if he probably would never be able to get a license. He didn't have a birth certificate, after all, or the underworld contacts required to fake one. In any case, Derek just seemed reassured that his longest-standing employee could actually be a bit more useful.

When it came down to it, Ethan just wasn't suited for working in a café. He wasn't particularly cheerful anymore, and any attempt he made at making coffee tended to be a disaster in the vein of Godzilla or the Third Impact. After Derek had hired his first waitress for the shop, though, Ethan was happily allowed to retire to managing expenses and washing dishes. It was really for everyone's health and sanity, even if Ethan didn't think of himself as particularly good at balancing a checkbook.

Still, Ethan _had_ worked with Derek on renovating and advertizing the café's new look, even going without pay for a full month until they managed to get out of the red zone of impenetrable debt. He'd bussed tables, washed dishes, worn the horrible sandwich board sign of doom, and even helped his uncle with managing their expenses and available drink options when worst came to worst. In its own way, it was almost soothing to be forced into such a consistently grueling routine—at least there was some structure in his life. As an added bonus, it generally left him too exhausted to dream about the world he'd left behind because of his impromptu trip through time.

That didn't mean that Ethan thought he'd ever be able to forget any of it, though. Information in the form of flashbacks was still fresh in his mind. There was still the fire that had killed his closest friends in one reality, and the raw despair behind seeing that one vision of Derek's corpse under a white sheet…

On the brighter side of things, it seemed like Chronos's success had actually eased the tension between Derek and his brother (and Ethan's father) Timothy. Derek only asked for loans every once in a while rather than begging for money, and they tended to be paid back quickly with Ethan nagging the older man at all hours. Ethan also made sure that Derek only borrowed what he could afford to pay back to the elder Kairos, and even then only for a good reason. As far as Ethan was concerned, stock expenses could be taken out of the net profit of the café, but the bit where the water heater had sprung a leak was something that needed to be fixed as soon as humanly possible. And so it was.

Ethan hadn't tried to contact his parents even once. In fact, he actively avoided them. While Derek would often stop by the house whenever he was in the neighborhood, Ethan tried to skip out on those meetings as often as possible. After all, while Derek was ignorant of the Hollow Pen and time travel and thus didn't think of the possible implications behind his nephew and "Will's" close resemblance, there was a possibility that Timothy Kairos, previous bearer of the Hollow Pen, might.

And, really, Ethan didn't think he was ready to deal with them. Six months, twelve years…what did it matter? And, some time ago, Ethan had decided that he didn't deserve to rush back into his parents' waiting arms. They didn't deserve to be inflicted with such a failure of a son.

Ethan leaned back in the passenger's seat of Derek's commandeered delivery truck, staring out the window. The city wouldn't change much in the next few years, but the people would. Maybe just through the actions of a lone, slightly gifted time-traveler, he could make a difference.

Granted, it would have suited him better if he hadn't ended up outside of time and trapped in the past at all, but at this point he'd learned to take what he could get.

As Derek parked the truck to go and talk to Timothy and Pamela again, Ethan tilted the baseball cap further down over his eyes. _Not causing any trouble, move along…_

Ethan happened to glance up when he heard a tiny voice squealing, just as there was a screech of tires from further away.

On the side of the road, about to step off the sidewalk and chase a bouncing rubber ball into the street, was a tiny brunet boy with big blue eyes and without his two front teeth. Careening down the street like an oncoming train, a small blue sedan was making a beeline for the boy—the teenager could see the driver laughing and drinking with the woman in the passenger's seat. Ethan kicked the truck's door open without thinking.

Later, he realized that it was probably a borderline suicidal thing to do. But sometimes, making a diving save of a little kid could be the most literal form of self-defense at the same time.

The next thing Ethan knew, he was lying on the sidewalk with the boy sprawled beside him. And everything, starting from his bruised knees and working its way upward, hurt.

"You okay?" Ethan panted, rolling over so he could get a look at the passing car's license plate. And… he'd completely missed it. Damn speeders.

"Wah…" _…Shit._ He looked back at the younger version of himself, who was staring up at him with big blue eyes that welled with brimming tears. He had a pretty bad scrape on one knee, but other than that the boy was unharmed. …_I'm __**so**__ dead._

"Hey, don't cry." Ethan said desperately, feeling panic well up inside him. _Shit, shit, shit!_

"Will? Why'd you leave the truck open?" Oh god, Derek was back. This was going to be a hell of a situation to explain.

In the interest of preserving his skin for something other than the hiding Derek was probably going to give him if he misunderstood the context, Ethan said, "Kid, let me see that knee."

Little Ethan whined a bit, but he did as his older self asked. Amazingly, the little scrape on his knee and the budding bruise on his cheek were the only marks he had from the entire episode.

Ethan looked up and, smiling faintly, patted the boy on the head. "You should be fine. Just get some bandages and maybe an ice pack."

Little Ethan sniffled.

Derek suddenly was there, crouching beside the two boys. "Will, what happened?"

"Close call." Ethan mumbled, looking away. "If I ever see those two drunken idiots again, I'm going to find something to hit them with."

"What, like a drunk driver?" Derek's expression quickly morphed into panic. "Oh my God! Ethan, are you okay?"

"M'okay, Unca Derek." Little Ethan said, biting his lip a little. "This big boy here pushed me out of the way."

"Ethan!" The shout came from the house—and there, on the threshold, stood Ethan's parents.

Ethan felt sweat break out on his forehead.

"Mommy!" Little Ethan called, holding up his arms. "Mommy, 'm okay!"

Ethan looked away from them, too.

It was probably stupid, but he was afraid. His mother didn't have a shred of cruelty in her, and his father was a Hollow Pen user with years more experience than him. He just wasn't all that much like the son they had—were still raising. And that…that scared him a little.

"Hey, Will. You all right?" Derek asked after the initial panic-fest, with Pamela and Timothy—it hurt less to think of them like that, if only a little—sweeping Little Ethan into the house like some kind of porcelain doll.

"…Yeah. Or I will be." Ethan muttered, rubbing his shoulder. Even six months after the last time he'd used the Hollow Pen, he still ached sometimes, for no reason. Granted, he had a perfectly good excuse this time, but he wasn't any happier with it. Not to mention getting a bit banged-up after saving his younger self's life.

Derek clapped a hand on Ethan's shoulder—not the sore one, thankfully, but it was still a bit of a surprise. "You zoned out there for a minute. You sure you're okay?"

Ethan nodded.

"Good. My brother and his wife will want to thank you."

…_I'm probably going to spill everything as soon as Mom asks._

…_Still, maybe it might be better if I stop running. It's not as though I've got a whole bunch of other places I can go, and I can't just bow out here. Not with my family._

* * *

If Derek was being completely honest, Will scared him.

It wasn't something a stranger would be able to put their finger on. To someone who hadn't lived with the kid for a few months, he was just another mopey teenager who didn't like talking to people much. Kinda absentminded, but who wasn't when they were in high school? He was a bit of an outcast, or at least that was what anyone on the street would think. And one who was slightly obsessed with clocks, if Derek was any judge.

But Derek wasn't stupid—he could tell that Will was tearing himself to pieces inside. Even when they'd first met, he could tell that Will wasn't keeping a lid on that stuff as well as he wanted to, but it was becoming obvious over time that he had some deep-seated issues. Most of it seemed to be tied back to survivor's guilt.

If there was only enough money to go around, he'd get the kid a shrink or something. But since there wasn't, he figured the kid just needed a chance to relax and get away from the stressful task of making Chronos a success. And his brother's family seemed just about normal enough for that—besides, he and Tim didn't fight much anymore. It would be fine, or at least he'd thought that.

What he _hadn't_ expected was for Tim to do a double-take and gasp, "Ethan?"

Will flinched like he'd been punched. And then he ran.

After about a two-second delay for the shock to sink in, Derek ran after him.

* * *

**A/N:** Sooooo...I'm back.


End file.
